author
Alex Philip
Best remembered as a Whistler pioneer as well as a novelist, this early 20th-century writer turned frontier experience into popular adventure and romance fiction. His books mix wilderness settings, melodrama, and a vivid sense of place.
1 Audiobook
The Crimson West
by Alex Philip
About the author
Born Alexander Philip in 1882 and later known as Alex Philip, he was a Scotland-born entrepreneur and author who lived in the United States from childhood and moved to Canada around 1900. He became closely associated with British Columbia, where he and his wife Myrtle Philip helped develop tourism at Alta Lake through Rainbow Lodge.
Alongside his work as an outdoorsman and lodge proprietor, he wrote fiction with strong romantic and adventure elements. His three known novels are The Crimson West (1925), The Painted Cliff (1927), and Whispering Leaves (1931).
His writing has also drawn later interest because it reflects the attitudes and storytelling conventions of its time. The Crimson West was adapted into the film The Crimson Paradise, and The Painted Cliff is noted by the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction for its lost-world theme.